Dark Knight (Awakening)
Dark Knight (ダークナイト Dākunaito) is a class first seen in Fire Emblem Awakening and returns in Fire Emblem Fates. They are spell-casting knights who ride a black horse. Combat Dark Knights are similar to Mage Knights and have a slightly higher magic stat than their strength. Compared to their pre-promoted forms, Dark Knights have a higher movement range, making great rescuing units, though they suffer from the usually mounted unit weaknesses including limited range on sand maps and bonus damage from Beast Killers. Stat wise, they are much more balanced, bringing their defenses to around even but at the cost of speed and skill to compensate. They will also receive a drop of their magic to bring their strength up to be effective with swords. In Awakening, the first of two skills is Slow Burn which improves Hit Rate and Avoid by 1 point for each passing turn for fifteen turns. Given their subpar skill, this can benefit in the long run but it has its limitations as it takes time to build and is generally not useful on lower difficulties. Lifetaker is a Dark Knight's regenerative skill and requires that they kill an enemy. If they finish off an enemy they will regain 50% of their maximum health. If they are low on health they can use other units to weaken enemies, allowing them to deal the final blow and regenerate their lost health. This skill is potentially life saving. In Fates, their Slow Burn is replaced with Seal Magic. After battling (provided the user survived), the target will lose 6 points of magic after battle. This makes the Dark Knight a unit capable of being an anti-magic killer as it will reduce the effectiveness on magic heavy units such as Sorcerers for them or other units to kill out. Just like in Awakening, they also learn Lifetaker. Overall, Dark Knights are interesting units as they perform well as a flexible offensive unit, allowing them to attack enemies through their lower defensive stats. However compared to Sages and Sorcerers, they have lower magic caps meaning that their attacks will be slightly weaker magically and, notably comparing to Sorcerers, they cannot use Dark Magic. Sorcerers have better defenses and use Dark Magic while Sages have better skill and speed. Also they do not have the special gimmicks that each of the other two promotions have as Sorcerers have Dark Magic at their disposal while Sages can heal others with Staves. Dark Knights are a magic promotion whose sole purpose is to be an offensive unit capable of attacking magically and physically. Stats Base E E |fe14=19*8*6*6*5*3*8*6* E E }} Maximum A A |fe14=55*32*31*28*27*31*34*30* B A }} Growth rates Known Dark Knights ''Awakening *Farber - a Valmese commander who fetishizes Walhart. *Ares (SpotPass) *Olwen (SpotPass) *Selena (SpotPass) *Possible promotion for: Miriel, Ricken, Tharja, Henry, and Laurent Fates *Leo - Prince of Nohr and the younger brother of the Avatar. *Possible promotion for: Odin, Nyx, and Ophelia. Gallery File:Dark Knight Female.jpg|Concept artwork of the female variant of the Dark Knight class. File:Dark Knight Male.jpg|Concept artwork of the male variant of the Dark Knight class. File:Darkknightmount.jpg|Concept artwork of the Dark Knight mount. File:AwakeningDarkKnightPortrait.png|Portrait of the generic male Dark Knight from ''Awakening. File:AwakeningDarkKnightFemalePortrait.png|Portrait of the generic female Dark Knight from Awakening. File:FE13 Dark Knight (Ricken).png|Ricken, a male Dark Knight in Awakening. File:FE13 Dark Knight (Tharja).png‎|Tharja, a female Dark Knight in Awakening. File:FE14 Dark Knight (Leo).jpg|Leo, a male Dark Knight in Fates. File:Ibunroku Cain Dark Knight.png|Cain, a Dark Knight from Genei Ibun Roku ♯FE.